Method of handling cigarettes



Oct; 11, 1966 W. E. WRAY ETAL METHOD OF HANDLING CIGARETTES Original Filed May 2, 1963 FIG. 1

II II H H II II A l5 INVENTORS WILUAM E. WRAY B WILBURN F. SIMERSON RNEYS United States Patent 3,277,755 METHOD 0F HANDLING CIGARETTES William E. Wray and Wilburn F. Simerson, Reidsville,

N.C., assignors to The American Tobacco Company,

New York, N.Y., a corporation )f New Jersey Original application May 2, 1963, Ser. No. 277,586, now

Patent No. 3,164,048, dated Jan. 5, 1965. Divided and this application Dec. 2, 1964, Ser. No. 415,417

3 Claims. (Cl. 83-24) This is a division of application Serial No. 277,586 filed May 2, 1963, now Patent No. 3,164,048.

This invention relates to cigarette making and, more particularly, to the collecting of individual cigarettes as they are cut from a movng cigarette rod.

In the production of cigarettes in which tobacco is delivered to the central portion of an axially moving strip of paper and the edges of the paper are folded over about the tobacco portion to form an axially moving continuous cigarette rod, the individual cigarettes are cut from the rod by a knife which travels along with the rod while the rod is supported in a reciprocating ledger during the cutting operation. The problem of collecting the cut cigarettes has generally set the limit on the rate at which the cigarettes can be produced in such an operation because the individual cigarettes must be transferred to a collecting device generally in the form of a travelling catcher belt. The cigarettes are directed downwardly toward the catcher belt and against a baffle plate arranged parallel to the direction of movement of the catcher belt so as to stop each cigarette and allow it to come to rest on the belt, but the structural strain on the cigarettes thus imposed by the mechanics of changing their direction at high velocity has caused considerable damage to the cigarettes and jamming of the handling equipment.

We have now devised a method and apparatus for dropping the cut cigarettes onto the catcher belt level which imposes no mechanical strain on the cigarettes and thus permits greater cigarette discharge velocity and hence greater rate of production. Pursuant to the method of our invention, cut cigarettes are deflected from a path of travel along the axis of a moving cigarette rod to the path of travel of a catcher belt by directing a jet of air simultaneously against each end of a cigarette when the cigarette is in position to be deflected toward the catcher belt, thereafter discontinuing the jet of air while the next successive cigarette is being advanced into said position, and repeating this cycle with the frequency of the arrival of cut cigarettes into the aforesaid position. The apparatus of the invention is adapted to deflect or drop a cigarette cut from a rod which is supported in a reciprocating ledger moving axially of the cigarette rod while the rod is cut transversely into a cigarette length portion by a travelling knife.

Our novel cigarette dropper deflects a cut cigarette from the path of the cigarette rod to the path of the carrier belt and comprises a trough-shaped receptacle open in the direction in which the cigarette is to be deflected and adapted to receive a cut cigarette moving along the path of the cigarette rod, an air inlet positioned approximate each end of the receptacle and extending into the interior thereof, air tubes communicating between the ends of the air inlets and the discharge side of the diaphragm pump, and a rocker arm one end of which is connected to the diaphragm of the pump and the other end of which is connected to the reciprocating ledger. The pump thus produces pulses of air coincident with the rate of cigarette cutting.

These and other novel features of the invention will be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a partial view of the portion of a cigarette maker adjacent a catcher belt and showing in elevation, and partially broken away, the apparatus of our invention;

FIG. 2 is a section taken along line 2-2 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a section taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, a representative cigarette maker assembly includes a catcher belt 5 carried by a rotatable drum 6 mounted adjacent the cigarette discharge end of a maker 7. A cigarette rod 8 formed in the maker is delivered in a direction toward the catcher belt. The rod passes through a ledger 10 supported in a ledger holder 11 mounted on a ledger carrier shaft 12. The ledger carrier shaft reciprocates axially of the cigarette rod 8 coincident with the reciprocating movement of a rotating drum 13 which carries a cutting wheel 14. The cutting wheel drum rotates as it reciprocates so that once in each revolution of the drum the cutting wheel 14 slices through the cigarette rod supported in the ledger 10 while both the cutting wheel and the ledger are moving in the direction of the advancing cigarette rod.

The resulting cut cigarettes 15 are carried in the remainder of their path to the catcher belt by the cigarette dropper of the invention. The dropper is supported by a mounting bracket 16 secured to an adjustable base plate 17 which is movably secured to the maker 7. The cigarette dropper has a cigarette guide tube 20 extending from its end near the ledger 10 to a position above the distal edge of the catcher belt 5 adjacent a cigarette deflector plate 18 which limits axial movement of the cigarettes. The underside of the tube 20 above the catcher belt is cut away as shown at 21 so that this portion 20a of the tube has the form of an inverted trough. The width of the cut-away section is greater than the diameter of a cigarette so that a cigarette entering this portion 20a of the guide tube is free to fall downwardly toward the catcher belt.

The upper side of the trough-shaped portion 20a of the guide tube is further provided with a slot 22 substantially coextensive in length with that of the cut-away section of the underside of the tube. The width of the slot 22 need be only suflicient to provide an air inlet to the upper interior portion of the trough. An air supply is provided by two sliding U-shaped collars 23a which engage the trough-like portion 20a of the guide tube, each collar having at its top an opening in which an air inlet tube 23 is mounted. The two collars may thus be moved axially along the trough-shaped portion 20a of the guide tube so that the air jets introduced into the top of this trough through the air inlet tubes 23 may be appropriately positioned to deflect a cigarette positioned within the trough downwardly toward the catcher belt and the deflector plate 18.

The air supply for the air inlet tubes 23 is derived from a conventional diaphragm-type pump 24. The diaphragm of the pump is pulsed by a diaphragm plunger 25 the outer end of which is pivotally connected to one end of a rocker arm 26. The other end of the rocker arm is connected to an extension shaft 27 mounted in a guide fitting 28 and connected by a pin 30 to the outermost end of the ledger carrier shaft 12. The pivot point 31 of the rocker arm is mounted on a support arm 32 which in turn is adjustably positioned in a mounting bracket 33 secured to the top of the guide tube mounting bracket 16. Reciprocation of the ledger carrier shaft causes reciprocation of the diaphragm plunger 25 through the linkage of the rocker arm 26, and the amount of inward movement of the diaphragm plunger 25 is adjusted by axial positioning of the rocker support arm 32. Thus, the diaphragm pump produces pulses of air which are keyed in frequency to the reciprocating action of the cigarette cutting wheel 14.

The magnitude of each air pulse produced by the diaphragm pump is adjusted by a conventional bleed valve 34, and the air thus controlled in time interval and volume is delivered through supply tubes 35a, 35b and 350 to the air inlet tubes 23. Distribution of this air supply between the two inlet tubes 23 is controlled by the positioning of a set screw 36 projecting into the interior of one of these inlet tubes 23 as shown in FIG. 3. The length of the cigarette guide tube 20 between the forward end of the ledger stroke and the proximal end of the trough-like portion 20a is such that the foremost of the cut cigarette being pushed through the tube 20 reaches the trough-like portion 20a simultaneously with actuation of the diaphragm of the pump.

It will be seen, accordingly, that the air dropper of the invention is characterized by a timing of the cigarettedropping air jet blast which inescapably coincides with the timing of the cut cigarette production and further that the magnitude of the jet blast, and its apportionment between the forward and rearward end of each cigarette to be deflected, can be readily adjusted to effect the amount of deflection required to drop each cigarette onto the catcher belt. The nicety of this control is evidenced by the fact that an air dropper of the invention has been installed on a standard 1-1 cigarette machine and has been run at a speed as high as two thousand cigarettes per minute without any jamming or kickout of cigarettes onto the floor and without any significant bruising of the ends of the cigarettes.

We claim:

1. The method of deflecting cut cigarettes from a path of travel along the axis of a moving cigarette rod to the path of travel of a catcher belt therebelow which comprises moving cigarettes cut from the rod along the axis thereof and into the path of two spaced air jets, directing the jets of air laterally downwardly and simultaneously against the opposite end portions of a cigarette when the cigarette is in position to be deflected toward the catcher belt, thereafter discontinuing the jet of air while the next successive cigarette is being advanced into said position, and repeating this cycle with the frequency of the arrival of cut cigarettes into the aforesaid position.

2. The method of deflecting cut cigarettes from a path of travel along the axis of a moving cigarette rod to the path of travel of a catcher belt which comprises utilizing the reciprocating motion of a device for cutting individual cigarettes from the moving rod to produce a pulsating air jet, directing the jet of air laterally downwardly and simultaneously against each end portion of a cigarette cut from the rod when the cigarette is in position to be deflected toward the catcher belt, thereafter advancing the next successive cigarette into said position between successive pulses of the air jet, and repeating this cycle with the frequency of the arrival of cut cigarettes into the aforesaid position.

3. The method of deflecting cut cigarettes from a path of travel along the axis of a moving cigarette rod to the path of travel of a catcher belt which comprises moving a cutting device axially of and coincidental with the speed of the moving cigarette rod while cutting the rod to form an individual cigarette, returning the cutting device to its starting position and thus establishing a reciprocating action of the cutting device axially of the rod, operating a diaphragm pump by the reciprocating action of the cutting device, directing a jet of air produced by the resulting pulse of the pump laterally and simultaneously against each end portion of a cigarette cut from the rod when the cigarette is in position to be deflected toward the catcher belt, thereafter discontinuing the jet of air while the next successive cigarette is being advanced into said position, and repeating this cycle with the frequency of the arrival of cut cigarettes into the aforesaid postion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 447,113 2/1891 Hull 8398 1,466,030 8/1923 Reece 83-98 2,151,136 3/1939 Moflitt 8324 2,769,495 11/1956 Pomper et al 8398 X WILLIAM W. DYER, JR., Primary Examiner. F. T. YOST, Assistant Examiner. 

1. THE METHOD OF DEFLECTING CUT CIGARETTES FROM A PATH OF TRAVEL ALONG THE AXIS OF A MOVING CIGARETTE ROD TO THE PATH OF TRAVEL OF A CATCHER BELT THEREBELOW WHICH COMPRISES MOVING CIGARETTES CUT FROM THE ROD ALONG THE AXIS THEREOF AND INTO THE PATH OF TWO SPACED AIR JETS, DIRECTING THE JETS OF AIR LATERALLY DOWNWARDLY AND SIMULTANEOUSLY AGAINST THE OPPOSITE END PORTIONS OF A CIGARETTE WHEN THE CIGARETTE IS IN POSITION TO BE DEFLECTED TOWARD THE CATCHER BELT, THEREAFTER DISCONTINUING THE JET OF AIR WHILE THE NEXT SUCCESSIVE CIGARETTE IS BEING ADVANCED INTO SAID POSITION, AND REPEATING THIS CYCLE WITH THE FREQUENCY OF THE ARRIVAL OF CUT CIGARETTE INTO THE AFORESAID POSITION. 